地球，人間煉獄 CXILIV (144 th、144期) ：
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Clubs fuel Thailand’s outbreak |
For months, Thailand had no confirmed cases of local transmission. Now, an outbreak is radiating outward from Bangkok’s elite nightclubs to its slums, prisons, construction camps, and factories. |
That’s hardly a new trend in Thailand, which has one of the largest wealth gaps among major economies. Many Thais have rigorously kept their masks on and obeyed lockdowns throughout the pandemic. But the privileged few — the phuyai — continued to party. An ambassador and a government minister are among those linked to the clubs who have tested positive. |
Analysis: Thailand’s three waves of the coronavirus have crested in zones where the rich profit and defy Covid protocols. The first wave was traced to a stadium operated by the country’s powerful military, which makes money on sports gambling, and the second to a sweatshop seafood business, which depends on immigration officers turning a blind eye to trafficked workers. |
Quotable: “The phuyai destroyed the Covid situation themselves, and we, the small people, we cannot live,” said Mutita Thongsopa, a worker whose sister died after contracting Covid-19. “People are dying like falling leaves.” |
Regional trend: Thailand’s surge is part of a late-breaking wave that has washed over much of Southeast Asia, where adequate vaccines are largely unavailable. |
Here are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic. |
In other developments: |
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廣東疫情持續延燒 政府嚴防人員流動 | DW | 07.06.2021
广东省过去几周出现了近百例的新冠本土案例，这也使该省政府规划自7日
天下雜誌
【京元電移工群聚案，新加坡早有前例】
去年初，新加坡被譽為防疫模範生，但到了四月底，總確診數就突破17,000人，關鍵就是「移工群聚」。當時新加坡如何防堵疫情？為什麼成功清零後，仍未徹底止息？
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即時疫情動態，不斷更新>> https://bit.ly/3z5dtwf
CW.COM.TW
移工群聚案是長期抗戰，新加坡怎麼做？｜天下雜誌
近日京元電移工群聚事件，不禁讓人想起新加坡去年的移工宿舍群聚案。當
Improving ventilation will help curb SARS-CoV-2
On january 24th 2020 three families, together numbering 21 people, came independently to eat lunch at a restaurant in Guangzhou. It was the eve of the Chinese New Year. Extra seating had been squeezed in to accommodate more patrons than usual, and these families were crowded onto neighbouring tables along one wall of the windowless room (see plan). The largest of them—a party of ten who had arrived the day before from Wuhan—sat around the middle table. Later that day, one of their number developed fever and a cough and, at a hospital, was diagnosed with covid-19. Within two weeks, ten of the 21 were confirmed as being infected with sars-cov-2.
The families involved had never met and video footage showed they had no close contact during the lunch. An initial analysis by the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention proposed that the infection had spread via respiratory “droplets”. But medical lore has it that such droplets—defined as particles expelled while breathing that are more than five microns across—cannot travel more than a couple of metres after they have been exhaled. And some of those who became infected during the lunch were farther than that from the “index” patient.
There has been a misunderstanding about how the virus spreads
資料圖片，來源：Cottonbro @ Pexels
吻著虛幻
2021/06/05 -
今期《經濟學人》科學欄一篇文章，值得一讀。相信醫療界人士大多知悉最新有關新冠肺炎傳播的研究，但一般市民大眾未必。
文章關乎澳洲昆士蘭科技大學物理學家 Lidia Morawska 的研究。她於 2003 年 SARS 疫症爆發後已開始實驗，探索人們呼出的微粒如何在空氣中傳播。實驗的結果一反傳統智慧，指出呼出的 5 微米大小微粒，在適當的環境下，可傳播的距離，不止於我們一般社交距離的一兩米，而是二、三十米或以上！
不過，大家不用過於擔心，請續看下文。
她於去年（2020 年）中聯同 32 國超過二百多位科學家，呼籲全世界公共醫療機構正視這個問題。
世界衛生組織（WHO）一直信奉傳統說法，就是 5 微米的微粒不會在停留空氣中，很快便沉降下來，不造成傳播。直至去年三月，WHO 依然堅持新冠肺炎不會經空氣傳播（“FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne”)。後經科學界壓力後，才低聲下氣，認同空氣傳播的危險，但同時仍堅持新冠肺炎主要是經染疫者與他人緊密接觸下傳播。
結果當然是事與願違。因為一般人都做足的防疫措施，即勤洗手和保持社交距離，均不能阻止空氣傳染，尤其在室內。事實上，去年初中外已出現了室內或侷促環境下爆疫的例子：廣州、寧波、以及美國華盛頓州。報道中，傳媒冠以「超級傳播者」（superspreader）的觸目標題 — 由一名初始染疫者散播令致數十人染疫，期間並無緊密接觸（按閉路電視證據），其中不少受害的與初始染疫者距離頗遠。
事故後，有科學家利用電腦模式，模擬室內爆疫事件，結果與 Morawska 的研究吻合。
跟著下來的問題，是如何減低空氣傳播？
麻省理工兩位科學家計算過，如果有一名染疫者在房間內，可停留多久而不會染疫。他們將計算方法，應用於以下例子：有 1 位老師、19 位學生，自然通風的普通課堂內，得出安全時間是 72 分鐘。課堂如加上電動通風，安全時間增至 7.2 小時。如單單配戴口罩，則為 8 小時。兩者（即通風、口罩）兼用，則安全時間躍升至 80 小時！
［至於如何監察室內空氣情況，專家的建議是二氧化碳的濃度可作指標：室外是大約百萬份之 400，室內濃度應該是百萬份之 700 或以下。如果達到百萬份之數千，已是危險。至於如何控制濃度，建議是可進一步加強通風，或加裝空氣過濾，又或安裝滅菌的紫外線燈等。］
以上是 20 人、室內情況的計算結果。重點是單單配戴口罩已能提供 8 小時的保障。如果是室外，通風情況一般較好，如能保持社交距離，安全時間會更長！
你可以說，以上只是 20 人（其中一人染疫）的計算結果。如果人數多一些，或多許多，又怎樣？我們可以借鑒巴士、地鐵、或其他公共交通，尤其是上班下班、上課下課的繁忙時間，過去一年半是否因為有染疫者在車上而出現傳染的個案？如果有，有多少宗？為何沒有限制市民乘搭的地區、次數、時段等？
既然如此，令人百思不解的是，為何仍以防疫之名，阻止群眾在室外聚集、遊行？
日本電影《間諜之妻》，講及二戰時期在中國東北進行的暴行，本土許多人都懵然不知，尤在醉生夢死。這裡的處境，就如電影中樂曲的這句：「踏著現實，吻著虛幻」。
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